8.
This time, when I was about to return home from my brother's house, the usual routine began. My sister-in-law not only packed various homemade snacks for me but also bought expensive gifts from the market for the children and mother. She even picked out a beautiful saree for my wife, showing it to me as she placed it in my luggage.
While placing the saree, my sister-in-law didn’t forget to make a joke. With a playful tone, she said, "Make sure to give this to my sister-in-law, and don’t let it just sit packed away somewhere, getting old."
I responded with a counter-joke, saying, "Your sister-in-law isn't a saint who will only accept what I give her. She'll check my pockets as soon as I get home; forget just the luggage!"
My sister-in-law, like a judge, declared, "Order! Order! Nothing negative about my dear sister-in-law."
Now, turning serious, I said, "I keep visiting here frequently; there's no need to spend so much every time."
My sister-in-law replied, "This is for the children, mother, and among us; nothing has been spent for you. You just need to act as a courier and deliver what we've sent."
With that, my sister-in-law silenced me.
But the real surprise came when my brother joined the conversation. He said, "I need you to do something for me as well."
"What? What do you need?" I asked.
My brother pulled out a key from his pocket, handed it to me with a smile, and said, "There's a new silver-colored car parked outside; take it with you."
"Where to? Who is it for? Why?" I asked, almost bewildered.
"It's for no one; just take it home and keep it there. From now on, whenever you visit, don’t come by bus or train, but bring the children along in this car."
"What is all this, brother? I don’t understand. Why all these gifts? And a car??? Does anyone give such an expensive gift for no reason? I was almost in a panic.
My sister-in-law interjected, "Don’t turn away incoming wealth. If your brother is giving it, accept it with joy."
"What’s going on, sister-in-law? This feels like a fairy tale to me. And if you must give something, do it when you visit us. Think about it—won’t everyone at home ask why I brought back such a treasure? They’ll want to know the reason behind all this! If there’s truly some great news, then this would all feel appropriate." I said all of this in one breath.
Just then, a man from my brother's showroom arrived and whispered something in his ear.
My sister-in-law and I looked on in surprise.
The man's hushed words were followed by a loud blast.
A siren started blaring loudly. No one understood what was happening or where this terrifying sound was coming from!
Was it an ambulance or a fire brigade? Did a fire break out somewhere? Everyone started looking at each other in confusion. My brother also sprang into action but couldn't immediately grasp what was going on.
The sound of the siren was so deafening that everyone was stunned. But it was so close that ignoring it was impossible.
It took us a minute to compose ourselves and try to figure out what was happening.
Along with the sound, we also heard the footsteps of a few people nearby.
I saw the face of a man at the door, who seemed to be entering. Without thinking twice, I jumped and ran out as fast as I could. Taking two or three long strides in the hallway from the porch to the drawing room, I quickly entered the washroom that was in the gallery. Once inside, I hurriedly locked the door.
You're surprised, aren't you? Why did I sneak out like a thief and run away?
Something about what was happening at home made me suspicious. But when I entered the washroom and turned its secret switch, nothing happened. I tried several times, but the washroom remained as it was. So, had my brother disconnected it and rendered it inoperative? But I had never told anyone about this. So, did my brother find out on his own that I knew about the secret passage and the technical device? Or perhaps he had already taken care of it beforehand. If he had any malicious intent with this secret passage, why would he leave it open in such a simple manner? He would have locked it and kept it under his control.
Well, now wasn't the time for speculation. After waiting a bit and ensuring everything was calm, I quietly slipped out through the front door and left. But what was I afraid of? Why did I leave the house? I was already being sent off properly. So, why did I feel the need to sneak away like a thief?
I was scared. When I suddenly panicked and hid, I later thought that if I came out, everyone would ask me why I hid. What had I done? And just to avoid that suspicion, I fled the house.
But as soon as I hit the street, a question loomed in front of me like a cobra ready to strike: Where do I go now? My belongings were still inside my brother's bungalow. All the things my brother and sister-in-law had given me were inside as well. So, taking a bus or train back home wasn't an option.
If I went home after so long, and that too by sneaking away suddenly, leaving my things behind, without telling anyone? What would I say to everyone there? And if they called my brother to ask, I'd be in serious trouble. When my brother tells them that I left without informing anyone, leaving all my things behind, I'd be declared insane throughout the city.
No, no, that's out of the question. I won't do that.
So, the only option was to go to Tanmay's house. Even though Tannu wasn't here, his house was. His father, Pujari Ji, would be at home. I quickly got a rickshaw and headed towards the temple.
Pujari Ji hadn't returned from the temple. When I reached the temple's main gate and greeted him from a distance, he was engrossed in performing the aarti, holding the aarti plate in his hand. But he noticed me. He held the plate in one hand, reached into his dhoti near his waist with the other hand, and took out the house keys. He gestured to a boy standing in the crowd attending the aarti. Without a moment's delay, the boy grabbed the keys from Pujari Ji and came towards me.
When we reached the house, the boy unlocked the door and filled a glass of water from the pot in the kitchen and handed it to me.
Honestly, I was very thirsty at that moment, and the water felt like nectar to me.
A little while later, I was sprawled on the cot in the room, and the boy was making tea for me in the kitchen.
The boy told me that today’s meal had been sent from a patron’s house and was kept at the temple, and he would go and bring it in a while. The boy asked insistently if I was hungry, and if so, he would fetch the meal right away.
I gestured with my hand to decline. He got ready to leave but turned back once more before he did and asked, "Should I set up your bed on the terrace, or will you sleep here in the room with Pandit Ji?"
Without saying a word, I pointed to the terrace.
Scratching his head, the boy picked up a broom and started setting up the stairs to the terrace.
There was so much food in the tiffin that even after three of us had eaten to our hearts' content, the tiffin still wasn't completely empty. After licking his fingers clean from the eggplant bharta, the boy gave the leftover poori and some cabbage curry to a dog before washing the tiffin. The dog, who had been watching us eat with hopeful eyes, wagged its tail and came over as soon as the boy called out to it. With four bellies full, it was as if the path to fulfilling that stranger's wishes had been cleared. The priest, meanwhile, quickly washed his hands and began his bedtime rituals. He hung his dhoti and kurta on a hook, wrapped his sacred thread around his ear for the final rite before sleep, then awkwardly said goodnight to me and laid down. I knew that sleep would soon overtake him after the meal.
I went up to the terrace. The boy followed me up, and I gave him a questioning look. Before I could ask, the boy told me that the priest had asked him to stay the night as well, so that I wouldn't have any trouble with tea or water. The boy had already swept and cleaned the terrace earlier, so I quickly changed into the priest's attire. I had left my belongings behind and planned to wear the same clothes tomorrow, so I took them off and placed them against the parapet, weighed down by a brick. The boy asked if I needed a lungi or loincloth, offering to fetch one from downstairs. When I declined, he gave me water from the jug, and then lay down next to me on the bed.
The weather was a bit warm. He, too, took off his shirt and pajamas, setting them aside in a corner, and then lay down, staring up at the sky. The chaos and rush of the evening had calmed down in my mind, but I still felt restless. The boy fell into a deep sleep soon after, but it took me a long time to fall asleep.
I was awakened in the morning by the loud noise of a motorcycle. A bike had arrived at high speed and parked downstairs. Just as I picked up my clothes from the parapet to look down, I saw Parvez signaling me to come down quickly. Parvez was the younger son of my friend Imtiyaz, who was studying at the college here. The boy who had slept beside me at night was making tea in the kitchen when Parvez whispered something into my ear. I became anxious. I took the tea cup from the boy's hand, placed it on a stool, and signaled to him that I would be back in two minutes. It barely took me two or three minutes before I pushed open the door of the bathroom and came out. Even though the boy offered me soap, I quickly washed my hands with a clump of earth I picked up from the ground.
I downed the somewhat cool tea in one gulp, buttoned my shirt as I put it on, and got on the bike with Parvez. The boy looked on in surprise, as he was just starting to prepare breakfast for me. I signaled him to stop, and even before I could gesture where we were going, Parvez started the bike so quickly that if I hadn't wrapped my arm around his waist, I surely would have fallen off. The boy stood there, mouth agape, as we sped away.
Since it was early morning, the road wasn't too crowded. Even so, I held onto Parvez tightly, as he was racing the bike at nearly a hundred kilometers per hour. He remained silent, and I couldn't speak either. The wind was so strong that even if I had tried to say something to the rider, he wouldn't have heard a word. Parvez was rushing me towards the farmhouse where a large area of land was used for cultivating eggplants. The road beneath my eyes sped by so fast, it seemed like it was rushing to take us to the horizon where the earth meets the sky, to catch a flight!
At that moment, I had forgotten everything. When I woke up in the morning, I hadn't brushed my teeth, washed my face, or even properly gone to the toilet. Apart from gulping down a cup of cold tea, I hadn't eaten anything either. Perhaps Parvez went through the same. After all, he was a young boy who usually slept late into the morning.
Both of us hoped that somehow, we'd reach the farmhouse, where we could relax, bathe in the water flowing from the motor pump canal, and have some fresh breakfast. But as soon as we crossed the bend and came onto the single road, the scene ahead made our hearts sink. From a distance, we could see two police vehicles parked beyond the tall boundary wall of the farmhouse. We could see three or four policemen moving around the vehicles, and there was a sense of panic among the people inside the farmhouse.
Luckily, because of the rough road, no one beyond the boundary wall noticed the bike speeding toward them, or else we would have landed in a new trouble. Now, it was a test of Parvez's skills and my decision-making ability. Without any doubt or hesitation, Parvez slowly turned the bike around and sped off in such a way that no passerby would suspect anything. Moreover, being an area outside the city and with it being early in the morning, there was hardly any traffic on the road—just an occasional villager or a tractor could be seen.
However, in this desolate place, even a vehicle coming from a distance was clearly visible. We retraced our steps just as we had come.
But going back to the city wasn't safe either. Even if we changed our route and went somewhere else, where would we go? Parvez knew of a narrow road that eventually connected to the highway. By taking that route, we could directly head toward our city. It was about a hundred kilometers away.
I didn't want to go home in this situation, but the biggest solace at this moment was that Parvez was with me, and his own house was in the same city, close to mine. Even if I didn't want to go home due to the danger, I could at least go with Parvez to our friend Imtiaz's place. Imtiaz was my childhood friend, and he would help me in every way. Plus, his own son Parvez was with me.
It seemed best to head toward our homes now. After all, a person in trouble always finds their home to be the biggest refuge.
After traveling a short distance, we found a petrol pump. While refueling, I asked Parvez if he was hungry, and we could quickly grab something to eat. But it seemed he was missing his home even more intensely than I was. We quickly left.
About half an hour later, we came across a small water pond on a deserted jungle road. We stopped there and took care of the morning routine that we couldn't complete earlier due to the rush. This was why I didn't feel like eating anything either. But Parvez needed some rest too. After washing our hands at the pond, we started moving ahead, searching for a roadside eatery or tea stall to grab a bite.
We had come about forty kilometers away from the city, but in today's times, being forty kilometers away from danger doesn't ensure safety. The police could easily create a new threat for us with a single phone call or wireless message, and that was a real fear.
I had sensed danger from the police at least three times in different places. During this time, I hadn't even called my brother, and now, I had no idea where he was or what he was doing.
I felt pity for Parvez, who was caught in this trouble because of me, running away in panic. We ate two hot rotis with yogurt and some dal at a roadside eatery and moved on. We had to be careful not to create suspicion among the people by showing too much hurry or anxiety.
The strong wind helped us escape the heat and sweat, but the scorching sun had worsened the situation.
After a while, the buildings and roads of our city started to appear. As they say, "out of the frying pan, into the fire!"
From a distance, I saw the silver-colored car parked in front of my house. What… my brother here? Trouble!
I had never cried like this before. My tears had never flowed continuously for so long. But now, the situation was such that there was no other choice.
I was in police custody.
Though I was quite sure that with the way my brother was running around with the lawyer, he would soon get me bailed out and take me away from this suffocating environment. My brother had said as much when he came to see me in custody. And whatever my brother said, he did. He appeared calm, serious, and self-absorbed, but deep down, he cared for everyone.
Just look, how he was trying to get me out by bringing along such a smart and expensive lawyer.
Oh! What am I doing, sitting here and telling my own story? First, let me tell you how all this happened. What happened that the police threw me behind bars.
I'm ashamed even to speak of it.
Life is like this. We say one thing and do another. I kept telling everyone that my brother must be involved in some shady business after returning from abroad, that's why he's making so much money. Seeing his bungalow and lifestyle, I falsely accused him of making money through dishonest means, without understanding the truth. But there was nothing like that. My brother had always been hardworking, a good planner, and someone willing to take risks in life, and it was because of these qualities that he found success.
Mother was probably right when she said that I was jealous of my brother's success. My wife was absolutely right in thinking that I must have misunderstood something.
To tell the truth, deep down, I went to my brother's house with the envy of how he was making so much money. What magic did he possess!
And as I indulged in various malicious thoughts, I got entangled in them myself.
Pretending to live in peace and contentment while leaving my own business to the manager, I actually rushed to my brother's bungalow out of this restlessness to see how he was earning.
There, I met a cunning businessman involved in the drug trade. It was during my close interactions with my brother's staff and others that I encountered this man.
Oh! I was out of my mind to take an interest in this business that harms people!
I got my childhood friend's college students involved in distributing this white poison like brown sugar and heroin. I would lavish them with money because I had so much ill-gotten black money pouring in.
What didn't these boys start doing at my behest? Ugh... they even learned to play the wild games of youth, distributing eggplant peels.
I kept exploring different ways to use it, and where it could be applied.
I discovered how to mix it with vegetables. I had heard that adding it to some canned food items from abroad could make people addicted. If a little bit of it was sprinkled on an ordinary ice ball like salt, children would become so desperate that they would become addicted to it.
Oh! I committed such a heinous sin that people came to us in the guise of devotees at the temple and took this poison from us as 'prasad'. College students, who worked part-time jobs, collected the money for the 'prasad' at the temple and were handed this tiny packet of poison like salt as 'prasad'.
The area around that unknown temple in the deserted area started seeing cars of devotees parking outside.
Some people, who studied management and ran food chains in cities and villages, started mixing it in food to run their businesses with huge profits in this cutthroat competitive era.
Alas! We even taught innocent people to sprinkle this drug on the vegetables grown for export under the guise of preservation.
The girl, whose father tried to provoke Tanmay to form a relationship by giving him a cart, became the demon who constantly brought this drug for me. I would talk about the white and black aspects of this business with him on his terrace at night. He was getting so much money that he left all his businesses and sat at home. His daughter ran away with a merchant from Chimney Market, and it was he who showed us the way to that large farm where eggplants were grown.
Tanmay and his wandering friends became like lost Columbus, who discovered this criminal land for me.
We even had innocent flower sellers selling this powder.
Do you know that the car my brother was gifting me wasn't actually bought by him? It was sent to me as a gift by that farmhouse. When my brother found out about this, he theatrically handed over the keys to me, so I wouldn't have to face humiliation in front of my sister-in-law and children.
Now listen carefully. Don't be surprised, but my brother had been suspicious of my activities from the beginning, so he assigned a police officer friend of his to keep an eye on all my habits and activities.
In this way, my brother was constantly watching over me so he could save me from this filthy path.
Look at that, I fell into the trap of the proverb: the teacher eats eggplant himself and tells others not to eat it!
Perhaps that's why Kabir said: "I went in search of the wicked, but I couldn't find any; when I searched my own heart, I found no one worse than me."
Now, I'm feeling sleepy. There are many mosquitoes in my cell as well. My brother will come in the morning and get me out on bail.
Truly... a brother should be like that!
(The End)
